Monday, August 23, 2010

BBC Buzz uncovered

I wondered when someone would notice. Congratulations for being the first.

As you've spotted, we've been developing a tool that finds where people are discussing BBC programmes so we can link back to them from the relevant programme page. It shows where the 'buzz' is around our programmes, and helps people find relevant and interesting blog posts about that programme. As you've also seen, there was previously a prototype of this same idea called Shownar, which BERG built for us at http://shownar.com/. That prototype has closed down now, but we've been busy taking what we learned from it and building something which integrates directly with our programme pages.

Although the new system it still not quite live yet, we recently started using it to find some relevant blog posts that refer to BBC Radio and TV programmes. While we're ironing out the last few wrinkles, it's useful to test out the processes and get some links in the system ready for when we launch. That's why you've spotted a visit from our moderation tool but the link back to your site hasn't (yet) appeared on the programme page. Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks for being interested, and I hope you'll like the system when it does launch in a few weeks.

Classical blogs are spreading but their nutritional value is lower than a bag of crisps. Unlike financial blogs, which yield powerful and profitable secrets, classical web-chat is opinion-rich and info-poor.

This bag of crisps starts its seventh year of blogging tomorrow. More on the power of blogs here.

Also on Facebook and Twitter @overgrownpath. Photo is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Norman knows something about serving up crisps, or juicy morsels, but your blog serves up a rich and complex bouillabaisse with every post. Switching metaphors, I have become entangled in the brambles of your overgrown path time and again, feeling guilty as the hours are frittered away as I'm seduced to jump from link to link, eventually arising on some hilltop feeling winded and exhilarated, imbued with some new knowledge or perspective, or acquiring some CD I would never have considered (and sometimes regretted I did). And your writing is so sharp (I was about to say crisp)and conversational and dense with music and recording history; rich with evocative observations of a locale in France or England or elsewhere; and of tombstones, of course --- this is hardly a 'crisp', but rather some of the richest and educational stuff in the blogosphere. I apologize for my effusiveness, but I have been intending to write you a note of appreciation for some time, but it took that quote of Norman's to light the fire. (He does have that effect sometimes, doesn't he?)

Even as a Canadian reader your commentaries about the BBC greatly interest me, as a similar pathological process of dumbing-down has been occurring on CBC Radio2 with a commensurate loss of audience, as you are probably aware and about which the omniscient Norman himself has noted. [sorry I'm not as proficient as you in providing the links.]

Many thanks for your beautifully written and informative essays, and for those unexpectedly long vacations in the blogosphere.

Contact

Email - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

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